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19 Jan 2010 : Column 308W—continued
Warm Front Scheme: South Tyneside
Mr. Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many people have received a grant under the Warm Front scheme in (a) Jarrow constituency and (b) South Tyneside in each year since the inception of the scheme. [310663]
Mr. Kidney: The following table shows the number of households who have received assistance from the Warm Front scheme in (a) Jarrow constituency and (b) South Tyneside in each year since the inception of the scheme.
| Number | ||
| Assisted households | Jarrow | South Tyneside |
Children, Schools and Families
Adoption
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many adopted children of each age at the time of approval for adoption waited (a) less than six months, (b) more than 66 months, (c) more than 72 months and (d) more than 80 months to be adopted following the decision that adoption was in their best interest in each year since 2001. [311638]
Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 18 January 2010]: The number of looked-after-children adopted in the years ending 31 March 2001 to 2009 and who had waited (a) less than six months, (b) more than 66 months, (c) more than 72 months and (d) more than 80 months to be adopted following the local authority's decision that the child should be adopted, by the child's age at the time of that decision, is shown in the tables, copies of which have been placed in the Libraries.
The figures shown for the time between the local authority's decision that the child should be adopted and the date of the adoption are cumulative. For example a child that is included in the 'Over 72 months' category has also been included in the 'Over 66 months' category.
Once a child is placed for adoption with approved prospective adopters it is for the prospective adopters to decide when to apply to the court for an adoption order. The child has to live with the prospective adopters for 10 weeks preceding the application. This period is included in the time provided in the tables.
Children: Day Care
Mr. Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many registered childcare places there are for children under the age of eight years in Nottingham North constituency. [308492]
Dawn Primarolo: Information on the number of registered child care places is not available below local authority level.
Children: Nutrition
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps his Department has taken to promote healthy options for children when choosing their lunch at school. [311161]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: In order to help promote healthy options for children when choosing their lunch at school the Government have commissioned the School Food Trust to undertake a wide range of activity.
The trust supports schools and their catering providers in interpreting and implementing the regulations for school food and has produced guidance and resources concerning the marketing of healthy food.
In addition, to encourage children to eat healthily, there are a range of activities to help children and parents who want to choose healthier school lunches. These include the "Million Meals" campaign, the "School FEAST" scheme, the "Really Good School Dinner" initiative, MADGe-an on-line tool to allow the development of marketing material-and the national programme, "Let's Get Cooking".
The School Food Trust also provides advice and support to schools which ranges from the procurement and marketing of food, the efficient use of kitchen and dining spaces, the encouragement of stay-on-site policies within schools, as well as a guide to the whole school approach. It also works closely with Healthy School's leads in schools and local authorities; healthy eating is one of the four key themes of the joint DCSF/DH Healthy School Programme.
Departmental Advertising
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much his Department has spent on the Parent Know How service in each year since it was established. [308972]
Dawn Primarolo: The Parent Know How programme was launched in 2008. The programme supports a suite of family services delivered through telephone helplines, online digital services and print media. The services are delivered by a range of third and private sector organisations. Since its launch they have together supported 2.5 million families.
The following information sets out how much has been spent on Parent Know How services. It also includes £4,100,000 for local authorities to purchase new database systems as part of the Parent Know How. The figures include capital and revenue funding and are rounded to the nearest 1,000.
2008-09-£15,506,000
2009-10-£15,147,000
Departmental Food
Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what estimate he has made of the quantity of food waste generated by his Department in each year for which figures are available. [310809]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: No figures are available for the quantity of food waste generated by the caterers for the Department for Children, Schools and Families.
Departmental Surveys
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will place in the Library a copy of the results from his Department's most recent staff survey; which organisation carried out the survey; and what the cost of conducting the survey was. [311465]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) will be publishing its October 2009 staff survey results on their website in February. Following publication we will place a copy of the results in the Library.
The supplier for the (DCSF) staff survey in October 2009 was ORC International who were procured by the Cabinet Office to deliver the first cross-Civil Service people survey. The people survey replaced all existing staff surveys in the civil service with a single questionnaire.
The cost of the 2009/10 People Survey for (DCSF) was £27,000. By procuring a single supplier for staff surveys in 2009/10 the Civil Service has saved 35 per cent. on the total cost of staff surveys in 2008/09.
Health Education: Nutrition
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps his Department is taking to promote healthy eating by children. [311160]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: Healthy eating is an important part of good physical and mental health and achieving and maintaining a healthy weight. Ensuring that children, young people and their families have the information, advice and support they need to make healthier choices in what they eat is a long-standing priority for the Government. Our approach is about not just giving advice, but providing healthy food in schools and other settings. We have made significant progress in the past 12 months to build on the work to date.
Statutory nutritional standards for lunches provided in schools came into force for maintained primary schools in September 2008 and for maintained secondary and special schools in September 2009: this means that lunches provided in all maintained schools must now meet these standards. Food served in other parts of the school day or from vending machines must also meet statutory food-based standards. The proportion of children having school lunches has started to rise and parents can be confident that their children are eating a healthy, nutritious meal at school. The School Food Trust, as the Department's delivery partner, is working with schools and local authorities to promote and encourage take up of school meals, and we continue to ensure that pupils aged four to six receive a piece of fruit or vegetable every day through the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme. Cookery classes are already part of the curriculum in primary schools and pupils in key stage 3 can now take up the offer of the Licence to Cook programme: all pupils now get the chance to learn to cook healthy meals. The highly successful cookbook Real Meals-Simple cooking that tastes great, produced by this Department and made available to all year 7 pupils, was updated and re-launched in December 2009. This new edition contained a wider range of recipes, and accompanied by the Real Meals-cold food cookbook, also produced by the DCSF, which provides recipes for picnics and days out. All recipes were produced by the British Nutrition Foundation and meet the required nutrient standards. In addition, 99 per cent. of schools are now participating in the Healthy Schools Programme and healthy eating is a core criterion for achieving healthy school status.
We are also helping parents gain the skills they need to prepare and cook healthy meals at home. In January 2010 we began piloting the "train-the-trainer programme"
Cook4Life 'Cooking with Families' in the North West and South West regions. This pilot will give Sure Start Children's Centre staff the skills to enable them to run cookery courses in their centres which will help parents learn food preparation and cookery skills for use at home. We have also funded the Health, Exercise and Nutrition for the Really Young (HENRY) programme to disseminate good practice in Sure Start Children's Centres on healthy eating and exercise, which is being well received.
In January 2009 we launched the social marketing campaign Change4Life to encourage us all to eat well, move more and live longer. Over 415,000 families have joined the campaign and receive information and advice tailored to their needs. Change4Life is primarily aimed at families with children aged between five and 11. To support families with younger children, in October 2009 we published a Change4Life Early Years toolkit for practitioners working with younger children. Start4Life, launched in January 2010, provides authoritative and up to date advice to pregnant women and parents of babies and children up to two years old on breastfeeding, introducing infants to solid food and active play so that babies can have the best start in life.
We have also revised the Birth to Five, the NHS guide to becoming a parent and finding practical help and support on various issues, including diet and nutrition for children, which is given to all mothers. There is also an online version which features interactive tools and videos for new parents.
Health visitors and other community nurses and practitioners play a vital role in helping to ensure that children and young people benefit from good nutrition. Through the Healthy Child Programme for the first five years of life health visitors and others promote exclusive breastfeeding, the introduction to solid foods and the development of good eating habits, such as the importance of eating fruit and vegetables as promoted through the Five a Day campaign from infancy onwards. In October 2009 new guidance for the important review which takes place after a child's second birthday as part of the programme was published. Also in October 2009 the Secretaries of State for Children, Schools and Families and Health launched the Healthy Child Programme for five to 19 year olds to stakeholders. This programme also emphasises the importance of healthy eating.
We are also helping families make healthier choices in the food they buy in shops and restaurants through the work the Department of Health and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) are taking forward with industry to implement the Healthy Food Code of Good Practice as set out in Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives: One Year On. In addition, we are continuing to work with the Association of Convenience Stores to roll out a project across England to promote fruit and vegetables in stores in deprived areas, using the Change4Life brand.
Playgrounds: Standards
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what recent guidance his Department has provided to local authorities on the area to be provided per child aged (a) five to 11, (b) 11 to 16 and (c) over 16 years at educational establishments for outdoor play. [309478]
Dawn Primarolo: The Government have not issued guidance to local authorities on the area to be provided per child for outdoor play. The Government's planning policy on open space, which includes the provision of land for outdoor play, is contained in Planning Policy Guidance Note 17, 'Planning for Open Space, Sport and Recreation'. This states that local planning authorities should set their own local standards for the provision of different types of open space, taking account of factors such as the demographic profile and extent of existing buildings, residential and commercial development in their area.
The Government published 'Aiming High for Young People: Ten Year Strategy for Positive Activities', in 2007. Backed by over £900 million of investment, it sets out plans to help all young people, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, to take part in enjoyable and purposeful activities in their free time. As part of the strategy, myplace is delivering £270 million of Government capital investment in world class youth facilities as part of a 10-year commitment to deliver new and improved youth facilities in every constituency by 2018. Aiming high supports local authorities in their duty to secure access to positive activities for all young people.
An extensive consultation, 'Fair Play', was undertaken by the DCSF in April 2008 with children, young people and parents on play facilities. The national Play Strategy, launched in December 2008, set out the Government's commitment to invest £235 million to deliver 3,500 new or refurbished outdoor play areas, plus 30 staffed adventure playgrounds, by 2011. This funding is allocated to every top tier local authority in England and intended to support play for all ages, but with a particular focus on eight to 13s. All local authorities are required to develop a strong understanding of local levels of need for outdoor play facilities as part of their decision-making on how this capital investment will be spent, and are supported in this process by the Government's national delivery partner, Play England. The views of local children, families and residents are a vital part of these considerations.
Non statutory guidance; 'Embedding the Play Strategy', will be issued to local authorities in February 2010 to help children's trusts and local strategic partnerships plan their local play offers and improvement programmes. This guidance recommends ways for local partners to determine how much and what kind of outdoor play provision they might need.
Pupils: Disadvantaged
Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what his Department's definition is of a disadvantaged pupil; who decides whether a pupil should be categorised as disadvantaged; and how many pupils were classified as disadvantaged in Shrewsbury and Atcham in (a) 2007, (b) 2008 and (c) 2009. [306918]
Dawn Primarolo: For the purposes of tracking the educational progress and attainment of disadvantaged pupils, and for monitoring our progress towards narrowing attainment gaps, we use eligibility for free school meals as a proxy for disadvantage.
Other measures of disadvantage, such as the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index, are used for other purposes.
In 2007, 1,210 pupils were registered as eligible for free school meals (and therefore classified as disadvantaged) in Shrewsbury and Atcham. In 2008, 1,230 pupils were eligible and in 2009 the figure was 1,180.
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